The latest version of a walking, quadruped battlefield robot from Boston Dynamics, the military robotics maker owned by Google X, was tested by U.S. Marines last week.

Spot weighs about 70kgs, is electrically operated and walks on four hydraulically-actuated legs. It's controlled via wireless by an operator who can be up to 500 meters away.

It underwent trials and testing at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as part of evaluations by the Marines on future military uses of robotic technology. In a series of missions, it was evaluated in different terrains including hills, woodlands and urban areas.

In addition to its robotics technology, Spot includes a small LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) laser imaging sensor that's similar to the sensor installed on the top of Google's self-driving cars to give them an all-around view of the world.

The trials were held by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has provided funding to Boston Dynamics to research and build the robots.

"We want to continue to experiment with quadruped technology and find ways that this can be employed to enhance the Marine Corps warfighting capabilties," said Capt. James Pineiro, the branch head for Marine Corps Warfighting Lab., in a press release.